Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.
Collectively referred to as the seven deadly sins; the sum of which also happens to coincide with
the total number of Ghostface Killers there have been within the current
timeline of the scream franchise.
So in this video we'll be breaking down the personalities and motives of each one of them
to find out which of the seven deadly sins they best represent.
What is up scream team, Zack Cherry here, and if you're as obsessed with horror movies as I am
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That way you can stay up to date with all my latest content.
Kind of a redundant spoiler warning, but this video will be giving away the
identities of the killers from the first four SCREAM movies.
So if you haven't seen them yet, you should probably get on that train already.
For everyone else, be sure to toss this video a thumbs up,
and just for fun, meet me in the comment section
down below to let me know which of the seven deadly sins best represents you.
Let's get into it.
#1 Pride. Considered the original of the seven deadly sins,
pride is the most angelical or demonic of the lot,
and is also identified as dangerously corrupt selfishness by putting one's own desires,
urges, wants, and whims before the welfare of other people.
In even more destructive cases, pride is irrationally believing that one is
essentially better, superior, or more important than others,
and is displayed in excessive admiration of personal image or self,
especially when refusing to acknowledge one's own limits, faults or wrongs as a human being.
Of the seven Ghostface Killers, the deadly sin of pride is best represented by Mrs. Loomis.
Originally from Woodsboro, Nancy Loomis was the wife of Hank and mother of Billy,
until the discovery that her husband was having an
affair with Maureen Prescott resulted in the two swiftly getting a divorce,
at which time Mrs. Loomis left town for good, abandoning her son in the process.
Several years later, after learning of her son's descent into crime and ultimate death
at the hands of his girlfriend Sidney Prescott, and Top Story field correspondent Gale Weathers,
Mrs. Loomis vowed revenge on both of them by undergoing a cosmetic transformation,
and assumed the identity of a local news reporter in order to get a front row seat to their murders.
Mrs. Loomis's deadly sin could certainly be mistaken as wrath since
her revenge plot is rooted in her indignation towards the destruction of her family,
but the reason she gets pride is because of her excessive belief that her son's
homicidal turn was not actually a result of her own bad parenting.
In fact, she justifies her murderous rationale
by vehemently defending the fact that she raised a perfect son.
In ancient Greece, pride (or hubris) was also considered one of the greatest crimes
and was used to refer to insolent contempt that can cause one to use violence to shame the victim.
Mrs. Loomis further fits this mold as rather than take any responsibility,
she blames Sidney and her mother by projecting her own insecurities onto them
in order to cast herself as a virtuous figure.
#2 Greed. Also known as avarice, cupidity, or covetousness;
greed is considered an artificial, rapacious desire, and a pursuit of material possessions.
Other than hoarding, greed also inspires theft and robbery,
especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority,
but mostly, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs,
especially with respect to material wealth.
The Ghostface Killer who best represents this deadly sin is Mickey Altieri.
1 out of an average 97 active serial killers in the United States at the time,
not much else is known about Mickey prior to the events of SCREAM 2.
As an aspiring murderer on his way up,
he was recruited by Mrs. Loomis who found him through the classifieds of a psycho website,
and offered him financing for his tuition so that he could enrol at Windsor College.
Once there, he integrated himself into Sidney and Randy's inner circle,
where he would manipulate them and plant seeds of mistrust.
Yeah, Mickey's deadly sin being greed might seem like a bit of a stretch here,
but when you consider that fame is the one thing in this world he wants to possess the most,
and greed is the sin that is defined by possession, it all kind of falls into place.
Surely in his mind any victory in this hypothetical trial
would have resulted in greater material wealth later on down the line,
but it is in his methods of manipulation by deceiving a
jury and the mass media that he would cultivate this end goal.
and as Mickey was said to have not had the wherewithal to support this dream on his own,
the financial backing Mrs. Loomis provided would act as further material wealth for him to covet,
making this nothing more than a business deal,
and marking greed is the most suitable sin for this psychopath.
#3 Lust. Usually thought of as intense longing,
or unbridled sexual desire which may lead to other sinful acts,
the impurity of lust transforms one into a "slave of the devil".
Defined as the disordered love for individuals,
lust is generally considered to be the least serious capital sin,
as sins of the flesh are considered less grievous than spiritual ones.
Of all the Ghostface Killers, Charlie Walker easily represents lust.
Having grown up in Woodsboro, a town romanticized for its grisly past in the
popular 'Stab' franchise, as well as in real life,
Charlie developed a certain affinity for meta-fiction.
However, his station as the Cinema Club geek made
it impossible for him to get noticed by his high school crush, Kirby Reed.
Sensing his sexual frustration, Jill Roberts goaded Charlie into being her
accomplice by offering up herself, as well as the promise of a real-life stab remake
that would flip the script and leave him as the hero who gets the girl.
Charlie might be one of the least developed Ghostfaces,
as his motive only becomes clear just as soon as he exits the picture,
but it's also the simplest. He's a slave to his desires.
Every action he takes throughout the movie is done in the service of getting laid.
He even almost backs out of the plan because he's tempted with another offer,
which leaves him quite visibly upset to have had to turn down.
As previously mentioned, lust is not a spiritual sin, and is rooted entirely in the physical realm.
Charlie, representing lust, has the least agency of any of the Ghostface Killers.
He doesn't have his own agenda, as his plan is to go along with Jill's plan,
or at least the plan she's told him he's a part of.
This quite literally makes him a slave of the devil,
Jill being the devil in this case, as he's driven mostly by his desire to have her.
#4 Envy. Characterized by an insatiable desire,
envy can be described as a sad or resentful covetousness towards the
traits and possessions of someone else.
Similar to jealousy, envy is a feeling of discontent of another's status,
abilities, or rewards;
the difference being that the envious also desire the entity and covet it.
Without a shadow of a doubt, this deadly sin would belong to Roman Bridger.
Originally conceived during a dark time in Maureen Prescott's life when
she was trying to make a go at it as a young ingenue in 1970s Hollywood,
the struggling actress wound up giving her firstborn son
up for adoption before settling down in Woodsboro.
Years later, a grown-up roman would seek out the love from the family he had never known,
only to have Maureen slam the door in his face.
The rejection proved too much to handle, and out of revenge, Roman recruited Billy Loomis
to murder Maureen by showing him video footage of the affair she was having with his father.
Despite this, Maureen's death did not assuage Roman's anger,
and as Sidney went on to receive all the sympathy and be recognized as the true victim,
he directed all of his hatred towards her instead, which only grew more intense by the day.
Roman fits the sin of envy because Sidney possesses everything that he wanted in life;
a good home, a loving family, close friends,
and eventually the stardom that came along with her survivorhood.
In essence, Roman believed that everything Sidney
had in life would have been his if he wasn't dealt such a lousy hand.
However, the irony with Roman is that he was so blinded by his envy
of Sidney's life that he didn't even recognize the gifts he already had.
For instance, an up-and-coming career as a Hollywood director.
And rather than focus his energy on that,
he self-sabotaged to the point where he was labeled a pariah.
Roman: I don't even know what a pariah is.
#5 Gluttony. Commonly portrayed as eating in excess,
gluttony is actually more specifically defined as
an overindulgence and over consumption of anything to the point of waste.
Obviously this is very similar to greed in a sense that it can involve the desire for material gain,
however, the key difference here being that greed is possession while gluttony is consumption.
Wanting more than you have versus taking more than you need.
And if there's one Ghostface Killer who's guilty of this, that is none other than Jill Roberts.
Born in Woodsboro to Maureen Prescott's sister, Kate, and an unknown father,
Jill grew up in the shadow of her older cousin Sidney, whose familial relationship
to her became her most interesting facet as far as any of her friends were concerned.
This caused Jill to become obsessed with Sidney to
the point where she wasn't just envious of her, but also needed to become her.
And while Jill's obsession and ensuing crimes could certainly fall under the sin of envy,
it's her mentality of wanting to have her cake and eat it too that better fits the bill of gluttony.
Not to mention that her jealousy for Sidney is rooted in admiration rather than hate.
But like a true glutton, Jill needed to have everything,
including being the killer, the victim, and the survivor.
She could have easily allowed Charlie to live too, but being a survivor wasn't enough for her.
She had to be the sole survivor,
so she could get the book deals and the media coverage all to herself.
For her, it was all about having that celebrity status so
she could finally be the one that others were talking about.
Jill believed that in order to attain this, she would have to one-up every aspect of the original,
and she did this by having all of the murders filmed and uploaded to the internet,
because it wasn't enough to just read about what was happening to her,
she needed everyone to see it too.
It's quite fitting that her undoing came about
from biting off more than she could chew, as she had told so many lies,
more than she even needed to, that she couldn't even manage them all.
If Jill hadn't gone overboard with the details of her plan,
such as trying to kill Sidney, and setting up a connection with Gale,
she probably would have gotten away with it and done quite well for herself.
#6 Wrath. Defined as uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, and even hatred,
wrath often reveals itself in the wish to seek vengeance,
and may persist long after the person who did another grievous wrong is dead.
Feelings of wrath can manifest in different ways,
including impatience, hateful misanthropy, revenge ,and self-destructive behavior.
If you had guessed from the start of this video that wrath would be the sin of Billy Loomis,
well don't give yourself too much credit, this was pretty much a gimme.
On the surface, Billy appeared to be a mild man or teenager from a good home,
but in reality, he was barely holding it together while his parents were
going through a messy divorce which eventually saw his mother leave town.
He had also just entered into a relationship with Sidney Prescott,
which due to his mother's abandonment,
would go on to be the one part of his life that was keeping him from going off the deep end.
The two had even started off hot and heavy with a nice solid 'R' rating on their way to an 'NC-17',
which was all well and good, until the day that Roman Bridger walked into town.
Having his father's tawdry affair with his girlfriend's mother exposed to him,
Billy fell into a tailspin when he realized this was the reason his parents divorced.
And with Roman's guidance and Stu's participation, he murdered Maureen Prescott in a fit of rage.
After getting vengeance and framing Cotton Weary for the crime,
Billy believed that things would finally go back to normal.
But as Sidney became more withdrawn, he grew impatient with her and felt
that even in death, her mother was breaking apart his perfect existence.
As the hatred he had for Maureen Prescott would not subside,
Billy instead began to deflect those feelings onto Sidney, who he believed was just like her mother.
As the rage only became more intense day by day,
he finally put a new plan into motion to murder Sidney as well,
using his love of horror movies as the backdrop to the crime.
While there are other Ghostface Killers on this list who are absolutely perturbed,
and seeking out revenge for their own specific needs,
Billy is the only one doing it out of pure malice, as he really hated Sidney's mother,
unlike Roman, who had felt sadness from being rejected by her,
or Mrs. Loomis, who had a score to settle.
As a killer, it always just felt way more personal for Billy.
This is even evidenced by all the angry grunting noises he made as he attacked his victims.
His wrath towards Maureen Prescott was so strong, that it lingered long after she was dead
and became all he could think about, even referencing her right before his own demise.
#7 Sloth. Referring to a peculiar jumble of notions, including mental, spiritual,
pathological, and physical states,
sloth may be defined as the absence of interest and habitual disinclination to exertion.
More specifically, sloth is defined as apathy and laziness,
and also defined as a failure to do things that one should do.
By this definition, evil exists when good people fail to act.
Unlike the other capital sins, which are sins of committing immorality,
sloth is a sin of omitting responsibilities.
Emotionally and cognitively, this sin is expressed by a lack of feeling for the world,
the people in it, and for the individual themselves.
And if you've been keeping track of all the Ghostface Killers up until this point,
you'll know that the only one left is none other than Stu Macher.
Although given much more dimension through Matthew Lillard's nuanced performance, Stu was
originally written by Kevin Williamson to be more basic, and presented as a sheep or a follower.
And although some of that translates through in the actual movie, we know that Stu himself
admitted that his motive and ultimate involvement in the murders was due to Billy's peer pressure.
Having surrendered his complete sense of self to the mission,
Stu not only ignored the reality of the evil deed proposed by Billy,
but seemed to go along with it out of sheer boredom, and needing something fun to do.
To be able to separate yourself morally and emotionally to
the point where you could kill your ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend
represents the highest level of apathy that can only be attributed to the sin of sloth.
And if that wasn't enough to sell you on it, after realizing he was in way over his head,
Stu's first inclination was to just kind of sit down and take a load off.
That's one lazy Ghostface.
I want to thank my Patreon supporter Kenyada Blalock.
Did you agree with all seven picks in this video? you can let me know in the comments,
and if you want to check out some more SCREAM and Ghostface related content,
you can jump over to this playlist right over here.
Until next time, i've been Zack Cherry,
and I'll be right back.